This patent is directed to a method and apparatus for converting biological materials into energy resources, and, in particular, to a method and apparatus using pulsed electric fields to release intracellular materials from biological materials in a method and apparatus for converting the biological materials into energy resources.
Significant energy potential exists in biological materials, including biological wastes such as municipal and industrial wastes. It has been estimated that the animal waste produced on an annual basis in the United States has an energy value equivalent to 21 billion gallons of gasoline. Elsewhere, researchers have stated that the organic content of human wastewaters produced in the United States has an annual energy value equivalent to 0.11 quadrillion BTUs, with an estimated annual monetary value of $2 billion. See Logan, Extracting Hydrogen and Electricity from Renewable Resources, Envtl. Sci. and Tech., vol. 41, pp. 161-167 (2004), hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Researchers have also stated that animal wastewaters produced in the United States have an annual energy potential equivalent to 0.3 quadrillion BTUs. See Logan, above. By comparison, the total annual electricity generation of the United States is only 13 quadrillion BTUs. It is further believed that significant energy potential exists in industrial wastes and wastewaters, including those produced by pulp and paper processing and by food processing.
Various technologies, including methanogenesis, biohydrogen production using fermentative processes, and direct electricity production using biofuel cells or microbial fuel cells, have been demonstrated to be capable of producing energy resources from wastes and wastewaters. However, the efficiencies of the energy generation using these technologies, both in terms of rate and net units generated, remain problematic. For example, while researchers have estimated that hydrogen production from wastewater has the greatest potential for economical production of biohydrogen from renewable resources, fermentative technologies used to produce hydrogen from wastewater have been found to capture only 15% of the available organic energy. See Logan, above. This represents less than half of the estimated conversion efficiency of 33%.